Thin film deposition reaction chambers are generally manufactured with a single chamber or a dual chamber. In the dual chamber arrangement, the two chambers may be oriented with one chamber vertically above the second chamber. The upper chamber is used for the processing of the substrate, while the lower chamber is used for substrate loading and unloading. A regularly occurring issue in dual chamber reactors is deposition particles coating the lower chamber walls and requiring more frequent chamber cleaning.
It can also be difficult to heat a substrate being processed in a substrate processing tool. Variation in substrate heating may lead to within-substrate temperature variations. Such within-substrate temperature variations may lead to within-substrate processing non-uniformities. In some settings, substrates exhibiting such non-uniformities may produce defective devices. Further, deposition product may be deposited in the lower processing chamber, leading to reduced temperatures in the reaction chamber and therefore increased power consumption to overcome the inadequate heating. Additionally, the build-up of deposition product in the chamber can lead to premature chamber cleaning requirements and increased costs.